


And Then We Smile

by sunscreams



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 04:56:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3597159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunscreams/pseuds/sunscreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>"I didn’t know I knew another Nico.”

</p>
  <p>“Well, you do," Will yawns, “and he's super rad.”</p>
  <p>“Oh, should I be worried about some cooler, radder Nico taking my place?” I ask.</p>
  <p>“Meh,” Will sort-of-shrugs from where he's laying, “He mostly doesn’t see how completely rad he is. Which is a tragedy because this Nico, kid is, like, super rad. Like, super, hella, completely, awesome rad and he doesn't even see it.” Will drawls punctuating the end with yet another yawn. </p>
</blockquote><p>Or Will is really bad at holding his liquor and sort of makes things weird for everyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Then We Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Let me just start by thanking a very close friend of mine who totally gave me a boost when I had ruined everything and needed to fix it, so thanks Syd, you're the best.
> 
> I'm [here](http://sunscreams.tumblr.com) on tumblr. Come talk to me. It'll be a party.

As I stand against a wall, surrounded by drunken, sweaty people, I can't help thinking about how I never really wanted to come to this stupid party in the first place. I mean, I know Will just passed his midterms, and I also know it’s very important for all of his friends to be here to celebrate with him, but seriously, if I get challenged to another beer bong race, I swear to whatever gods are out there, someone is going to be missing a few limbs. I mean, couldn’t he have hosted his own party? Why did we have to come to some random frat party? I honestly doubt Will knows any of the people here.

But as I was saying, I didn’t want to come to this party. Although I am legally allowed to drink, I’ve never been super big on the whole inebriation thing. I mean, there’s just something completely unsettling about willingly making yourself unable to think or walk on your own. Despite this, I still somehow managed to find myself at a wild college party not drinking any of the punch, which I'm about 90% sure is tub juice, Will gave to me in a red plastic cup when I got here, while standing awkwardly against a wall, counting down the minutes until I can go home.

Will slides up next to me, "Hey, Nico,” Will’s cheeks are flushed and I can smell the alcohol on him from the foot and a half distance between us.

“Hey,” I wrinkle my nose at the smell and lift my hand in a small wave.

“I haven’t seen you all night! I wasn't even sure if you were still here,” Will pats me on the shoulder while gesturing around with his other hand currently holding a can of what is probably some sort of fruity cooler.

“I said I would come,” I shrug one shoulder, mainly to get Will’s hand off. It’s not that I don’t like him—quite the opposite—it’s just I don’t like touching other people. “Plus, someone’s got to make sure your drunk ass gets home.”

“True. And I know you’re gonna follow through on that, because you know what? You’re a bro and bros stick together," Will points at me with his can-hand to punctuate every ‘you’, his eyes becoming a little misty.

“Yeah, sure, I’m a bro," I say awkwardly looking around for literally anyone better emotionally adjusted to come help me calm Will down before he really starts crying. Will may seem like he’s super chill and happy and the all around cool-light-all-American-type, but bring out the booze or a really cheesy chick-flick (I’m looking at you Nicholas Sparks) and the poor guy becomes a weeping mess.

“You’re a better bro than Cecil. You know, he didn’t even show up?” Oh boy, I knew this was coming. Cecil and Lou-Ellen hadn't been able to make it to the party.

You see, Lou-Ellen has a huge exam coming up and she didn’t want to have to either stay up late to take Cecil’s drunk ass home, or pay someone to babysit him. But Cecil didn’t want to  ~~die~~  disrupt Lou-Ellen and he also didn't want to get babysat (I mean, he’s almost 22 he doesn’t need a babysitter). So, for the first little bit of the party, the two of them were going show up, hang out, have a few beers, then make their merry way home. They're Will's best friends and wanted to at least try to be here, even if for just a few hours.

But—of course—the day before the party, Cecil decided it would be a good idea to go and expel all of the contents of his stomach in one of his lecture halls. At first everyone thought it was just stress and once he upchucked, had a nap, and maybe some real food, he’d be good to go. But the second the first mouthful of homemade soup passed his lips, it came right back up. After a quick trip to the doctors he was diagnosed with the flu and prescribed plenty of bed rest, which meant no party for him, and because Lou-Ellen is seriously the best girlfriend ever, no party for her either.

“Will, buddy, you really don’t want that joker here. He’d just make everyone sick with some poorly miscalculated prank or something,” I say trying to navigate Will to an unoccupied couch.

Will sniffles, “Yeah, but he could at least call, or text, or send me a snapchat.”

“Have you checked your phone at all? Maybe he has and you're the bad bro who hasn’t answered,” I say settling for the front porch steps. It’s a little chilly but I have a sweater and I don’t think Will can feel much of anything in his current state.

Will’s eyes widen, almost comically, “Oh my gods, Nico, I can’t be the bad bro," before I can even blink Will’s whipped his phone out of his pocket and is checking every social media outlet he has readily available to him.

Just as suddenly as Will whipped out his phone, he drops it, fresh tears pooling in his eyes, “There’s nothing, Nicoooo. He’s the bad bro and my after-exam-party is ruined,” he turns to me and wipes his snotty nose all over my shoulder.

“O-okay, thanks for that,” I push him off and hold his big, stupid, beautiful, drunk head in front of mine, “What would make your after-exam-party not suck?”

“I don’t know,” he wails, then sighs, “I don’t know,” he sighs again, then smiles, “If I say it, would you do it?”

“I don’t know; depends on what it is," I say reproachfully.

“Well, I really want to play beer pong with someone,” his voice is quiet and his head is bowed, but I can tell he’s smiling.

I sigh, perhaps a little too dramatically before saying, “Fine. But, I’ll have you know that I’m going to beat you.”

“Not a chance, di Angelo!” and he’s up off the steps and bounding into the house, pulling me by the wrist behind him before I can even blink.

* * *

After four games of beer pong (three won for me, one for him. But if we’re being completely honest here, that last game totally didn’t even count, okay), and a round of barfing on Will’s end, we both decided to call it a night, heading back to our shared dorm.

“You know what, Nico?” Will sways from where he’s walking beside me. I grab his arm to stop him from falling, and he throws it over my shoulders.

“What?”

“You win MVP tonight for best bro, okay. I mean, you showed up to my after-exam-party and you helped me through a rough time and you played beer pong with me even though you don’t like to drink and now, you're even making sure I get home alright.”

I laugh, “Finally! My whole life has been fulfilled! My one dream of becoming MVP of bros has finally come true!” I exclaim while laughing, “Do I get to make a speech?”

Will snorts and ruffles my hair, “Yeah, yeah, whatever, bro. Make fun of my praise or whatever," Will, the fucking sentient tree he is, plops his head on top of my head, and okay, I don’t care about how short I am, but seriously? I need to get normal-heighted friends.

We walk in silence for a few blocks, when Will interrupts the general tranquility by humming contentedly.

“What’s got you all happy and humming?” I tease as I open the door to our shared dorm building.

“Nothing. It’s just, I get to hang out with a pretty cool guy right now, and I think that makes me pretty lucky,” Will’s smile speaks of pure bliss as he tumbles into the waiting elevator.

“Oh, yeah?” I ask, a crooked smile takes its place upon my lips and my cheeks bloom into a stipe of bright pink. Butterflies make their presence known from where they've decided to start an impromptu rave inside my chest. We step into the hallway making our way to our room “Do I know said 'cool guy?'”

“Yeah,” he says back as I open the door to our shared room. He extricates his arm from across my shoulders then plops onto his bed face first, closing his eyes before he even lands. “His name is Nico di Angelo,” Will remarks into the arm he's using as a pillow.

“Is that right?” I say breathlessly from where I’m frozen at the doorway. “I didn’t know I knew another Nico.”

“Well, you do,” he yawns, “and he's super rad,” Will pushes off his shoes with his toes and does the same with his socks.

“Oh, should I be worried about some cooler, radder Nico taking my place?” I ask, hoping to move away from where this conversation is going.

“Meh,” Will sort-of-shrugs from where he's laying, “He mostly doesn’t see how completely rad he is. Which is a tragedy because this Nico, kid is, like, super rad. Like, super, hella, completely, awesome rad and he doesn't even see it,” Will drawls punctuating the end with a yawn.

“You really think that?” I mumble, almost silently.

“Of course!” Will’s voice suddenly gets loud and I flinch. “One day, I’m going to show him, okay?” Will rolls onto his back and points into the air dramatically, “Mark my words on this one,” he pauses to burp, “One day I, Will Solace will show, Nico di Angelo just how freaking rad he is.” Will yawns again and my heart stops and I don't notice when he falls asleep; I’m far too confused to do much of anything.

To be completely honest, I have no idea what the hell just happened.

I continue to stand frozen in the doorway of our shared dorm room, my eyes wide and my breath caught in my throat, unable to fully process what Will just said to me. I know he’s fairly drunk, but why would he just make all of that up? I take a deep breath; I will not be dissolved into some sort hopeful, seventh-grade-holy-shit-my-crush-likes-me-back state. I’m going to pull myself the fuck together, go to sleep _like a normal fucking person_ , and forget any of this ever happened. Also, because Will is the asshole who’s making me feel this way, I’m going to be extra loud in the morning. His hangover be damned.

* * *

Despite my earlier plan to wake Will up in the morning, it’s the sun that finally does the trick. While I’m sitting on my bunk, reading and drinking an extremely overpriced cup of coffee, Will groans loudly, rolling over to get away from the rays of the almost-afternoon sun. He pulls the hem of the blanket higher still, hoping to get away from reality. But Will never has been good at waking up then falling back to sleep, so once the deed is done, he rolls onto his back and stares at the roof like it’s the reason he has a headache and can’t just sleep it off.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” I say deadpan. All I get in return is a grunt and an arm flung over a still-sleepy face. “How’s the hangover treating you?” again, just a grunt. I roll my eyes and go back to my book. If that’s the way he wants to be, then oh well. I’m just trying to be a good roommate.

After a few minutes of silence, I assume Will went back to sleep, only to be proven wrong when he speaks up, “Do we have any coffee in the room or am I going to have to get up?”

I look up from my book and over to him, “Will, we never keep coffee in the room.”

He started sitting up, but upon hearing those words he flops back down with a dramatic groan, “Couldn’t you go get me some?”

“I could, but that would be encouraging poor decision making. Go get it yourself, you drunk,” I tease.

He groans dramatically, adding in a voice crack for humorous effect. I snort out a laugh and he says, “I’m dying, Nico, can’t you see? The only thing that could possibly save me now, would be a hot cup of coffee.”

“Wow, Will, are you sure you’re pursuing the right career path with medical? Because that performance was oscar worthy,” I comment as Will lays motionless on his mussed up bed.

“Shut up, Nico,” his voice is small and weak, just like his soul.

“I really think the drama community, no, the world, is weeping on this day, because Will Solace will never see the silver screen. Such talent, wasted,” I take a sip of my coffee and Will whimpers.

“Nico, you're so cruel,” he whispers, as he watches me chug down the rest of my morning coffee. I sigh as I bring the cup away from my face.

“That sure was a great cup of coffee. It’s such a shame you’re dying and can’t get one yourself,” I wipe my face with the sleeve of my sweater and throw the now empty cup into the trash. Looking at Will’s face, it honestly looks like he’s going to start crying.

“Why, Nico? Why must you do this to me?” he mumbles as he throws an arm over his eyes.

I can’t help it, I burst out laughing and upon hearing the sudden loud noise, Will flinches, only making me laugh harder. I’m wiping tears from my eyes once I calm down.

“Are you done?” he asks, pitifully.

“Yeah, I think so,” I look over at him and then look away. He’s still got his eyes covered by his arm. “There’s a coffee vending machine down the hall. Give me five bucks and I’ll go get you one.”

Will lifts his arm, “Really? You’d do that? Even though it’s ‘encouraging bad decisions?’”

I shrug, “Whatever. You did call me—oh what was it—‘super, awesome, hella rad’ last night.”

I watch his face pale, “Oh my gods,” he whispers, “Did I really say that?”

I smirk, “Yeah, you did.” I roll my eyes, “You also said that you were going to one day show, a Nico di Angelo how incredibly rad he is. Now I don’t know this Nico kid, but I’m starting to feel a little like chopped liver. I mean, this other Nico seems to be much cooler than me, but I don’t see him here picking up after you.”

Will pushes himself up into a sitting position. He bites his lip before saying, “That’s because the Nico that’s helping me now is much cooler than whatever Nico you think I was talking about.”

“Is that right?” I raise an eyebrow as I take a five dollar bill out of Will’s wallet.

“Yeah,” he watches me, then swallows thickly.

“Okay, so if I was that Nico, what would you do to prove to him that he’s all you say he is?” I run my fingers along the creases in the bill, folding it and unfolding it, Will watches my fingers for a few seconds before his eyes meet mine.

“I don’t know,” Will pauses and for a few heartbeats, the two of us are silent. He licks his lips and continues, “It would depend on how he felt, too, you know?”

“Oh, yeah, but of course,” I clear my throat, and look at my hands, breaking whatever spell we had a second ago, “But, theoretically, if he was up to it as well, what would you do?”

Will swallows thickly, “Nico…what…”

“Never mind, I’m going to get your stupid coffee,” I look at my hands, my heart racing a mile a minute. I don’t even know what that was; it was stupid. I open the door and nearly slam it closed.

When I get back to the room, Will’s closed the curtains and is getting dressed. I avert my eyes and place his coffee on his desk. I look at the clock, I have work in half an hour, I should get going. I tell Will as much. He doesn’t say anything, he just shrugs and I leave.

* * *

I hate myself everyday for choosing to work in a hipster cafe. The only thing that helps me sleep at night is the fact that I can wear all black without getting complained at and the salary is super good.

I make my way into the back to grab my apron. As I slide it over my head, I sigh. What even was that this morning? Why did I say that? Why did Will act so weird? Why couldn’t I just pretend it never happened? Will didn’t even remember.

Gods, I’m such an idiot.

“Yo, Nico, what’s the hold up? We’ve got a hoard of hipsters from the art district; a show just let out,” Thalia, an old friend of mine and a current co-worker calls into the back room.

“Yeah,” I call back as I try to tie the back of my apron, “I’m coming.”

“Hurry it up, you’re already late," I can hear her rolling her eyes.

I rush up to the door and bump her shoulder, “Don’t tell Reyna, she’ll be pissed.”

“Oh, don’t I know it,” Thalia laughs and pats my shoulder, “Better fill out the reports tonight then.”

“It’s your night though!” I call to her as I wash my hands.

“That’s the point. You owe me, Death Boy!” Thalia cackles before she turns to the next person at the register.

I sigh heavily as I start making overpriced coffee to give to these pretentious hipsters.

* * *

I get in late from work, due to having to do all the reports for the weekend. Thalia’s usually the one who does them, but because I was late, she’s got me by the balls. Will’s made his bunk into a blanket fort and I can hear the sounds of some action movie.

“I’m home,” I call, not really expecting an answer.

The sound on the movie stops and Will pops his head out of the blanket fort, “You’re home late.”

“Yeah, well, I was late to work so I had to do the status reports for the weekend,” I say. The air is thick with unresolved tension.

“You wanna get some dinner with me?” Will asks awkwardly, a half-assed smile on his face.

I shrug and look away, “I’m not really hungry right now.”  
   
“Oh, okay," his smile deflates just a bit, “I was going to go get some pizza,” he pauses, “You know, from that place down the street,” he makes half hearted hand gestures towards the wall.

“That stuff is literally the worst,” I tease trying to lighten the mood. This is weird, it’s usually me bringing us down and Will picking us up.  
   
"Oh," Will deflates a bit more. He shrugs, “Whatever, I’m not really hungry either.” Will retreats back inside his blanket fort, but the movie doesn't start again.

I just stand there for a second, both of us silent, “Will—” I stop. It doesn’t matter. He’s just having a shitty day. He’s probably still hungover from last night. I mean it’s unlikely, but entirely possible and here I am, being a jerk about everything.

I shake my head; I always ruin everything, “I’m going to go get us pizza. Just the regular, right?”  
   
“Yeah, sure,” Will says through his makeshift wall, “Sounds good,” his voice is weak and tired.

I sigh heavily, “You really did miss your calling, Mr. Drama Queen.”

I turn to leave, but not before I hear Will snort out a weak laugh.

What the hell do I do?

* * *

The pizza place Will was talking about is only a five minute walk from our dorm, which was really convenient for the first couple months. Then it quickly got old and the two of us agreed that we’d only ever go there if we were drunk, dead tired, or it was literally the last place on the planet to eat at. The pizza here tastes like cardboard and the cheese is like rubber, and not even in the good way. So it’s no surprise when the only other people in the restaurant are the sorry suckers who work there.

"Hello, what can I get for you?" a cheery, bright-eyed brunette says from behind the counter. It’s refreshing to see someone who still has light in their eyes form something other than caffeine overdose.  
   
“Hey,” I glance at the menu above her head despite already knowing what I want, “I’ll get a large, half cheese, half pepperoni. Black olives on the whole thing, though. Please," I dig in my pockets for whatever money I have on me.

“That’ll be twenty dollars and nineteen cents,” the girl says from behind the counter. I quickly count out the change and hand it to her. She counts it then puts it in the register.

“That’ll be just a few minutes. You can wait in the seating area,” she hands me one of the receipts and gestures to the tables and chairs sitting in the small front area. She then disappears into the back to cook my pizza.

I sit at one of the tables to wait, like she suggested, pulling out my phone to pass the time on, but I can’t focus on whatever shitty game I’m trying to play. My mind is back at the dorm with Will.

What’s his deal? I mean, sure he’s usually pretty moody—he says it comes with being a med student—but never this moody. I’ve seen him drunk a few times, so I know it’s not just a day after thing. Is he sick? Should I pick up some cough medicine, maybe some Aleve on the way back?

I sigh heavily. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I weirded him out by bringing up his drunk ramblings. Maybe he thinks I’m a jerk for even bringing it up. Why does this have to be so confusing? I groan internally; why am I so bad at figuring this out?  
   
"Large, half cheese, half pepperoni with black olives," calls the brunette holding an already greasy pizza box.  
   
"That's mine," I say holding up my hand and refraining from wrinkling my nose at how gross this is going to be. She hands me the box and as I turn around I almost bump into someone.

“Whoa, what’s the rush? You’ve already been gone for, like, a million years,” Will exclaims as he catches the box that was headed for the floor.

“Well, I was assuming you would be on the brink of death and I should really be getting on my way to save your sorry ass,” I snark back.

“Ah, I see. Good thinking, but if I had waited even another second you would have been too late and I would have been long dead. You would have been left with nothing but the dust of my bones,” Will picks a seat in the waiting area and opens the box with a gleeful smile on his face.

“I have no idea why, but I have been craving this all day," Will says happily as he takes the first bite of pizza. I chuckle and take a seat across from him. I grab a piece and take a bite.

Despite what I said about hating this place, I was really hungry, so while Will is reaching for this second piece, I’m already on my fourth.

“Wow, someone was lying about not being hungry,” Will chuckles before he takes another bite from his second slice.

“Yeah, and I think it was you,” I say around a mouthful of pizza.  
   
Will laughs, “Whatever, you dork.”

“I just came out here to have a good time and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now,” I say putting down my pizza and wiping my fingers on a napkin.

Will laughs so hard he nearly snorts pizza out his nose, “Oh my gods, memes Nico? Really?”

“Let’s just say I saw an opening and I took it,” I smile as I lift my pizza back to my mouth.

Will shakes his head and wipes his mouth with a napkin, “Just slow down a bit, okay? You’re going to throw up and I really don’t want to have to subject these poor people to that.”

“I’m not going to throw up. I’m not a pansy like you,” I snark.

“Okay, first off, I am not a pansy. And secondly, let’s be realistic here for a second. You handle your pizza about as well as I handle beer,” I snort and he rolls his eyes, “The only difference is that your pizza hangover will take you out of classes for a week.”

“Classes are over, smarty pants. It’s winter break,” I remind him.  
   
He rolls his eyes, “Whatever, my point is, you’ll get sick and I’ll be the one who has to deal with it.”

I sigh and put the pizza down, “Fine, excuse me while I get myself a soda. You want one?”

Will shrugs and I take that as a yes. I order myself a root beer, and him a cream soda. Giving the brunette at the till the money, I make my way back to the table.

Will nods his thanks as he opens the can to take a swig. I sit back down and do the same. After a few minutes more of banter and pizza eating, the two of us make our way out of the pizza place and onto the dimly lit streets.

“Okay, we have some serious things to talk about,” Will clears his throat. I nod my head, looking at my shoes as we walk and he continues, “I’m sure I said some weird stuff last night and I’m really sorry if any of it made you uncomfortable.”

I shrug with my hands in the pockets of my sweater, “It’s whatever. You were drunk, plus it’s not like you haven’t said weirder things to me before.”

Will nods his head, “True.” He’s quiet for a few seconds, “I just—I don’t know—what you said this morning…did you mean it?”

I pause and look him in the eye. I bite my lip, “Did you?”

Will bites his bottom lip and furrows his brow. He looks away and then looks back. He takes a deep breath, “Nico, I do think you’re hella rad and I do think it’s a tragedy that you don’t see it the way I see it and Nico, I wasn’t kidding when I said I would make you see it.”

My breath catches in my throat, “So how are you going to show me again?” I whisper to him. He smiles a blinding smile and gabs the arm that’s closest to him. He pulls it out of my sweater pocket and drags me to the side of the sidewalk.

He leans in close. So close that I have to look up at him and he has to bend slightly to maintain eye contact. He pushes my hood down slowly, then he brushes a piece of hair out of my face and rests his hand on my cheek.

“Can I kiss you?” he asks in a whisper.

“Why are you asking?” I reach up and weave my fingers into his hair to pull him to my lips. He tastes like pizza and cream soda and laughter. I can’t help the smile that creeps onto my face as I feel Will wrap his arms around me. He pulls away and all I can see is the sharp white of his teeth and the soft blue of his eyes.

“Nico di Angelo, you are super, awesome, hella rad, and it’s an absolute tragedy that you can’t see that.” I smile and he smiles and then we smile.


End file.
